This building is meant to last for 500 years. Strong and lasting materials, a design that favors adaptability and flexible floorplans for new occupants needs, and seismic resilience to withstand earthquakes all create a building that aims to greatly improve the average office building lifespan.

The building is within ½ mile of 23 bus and light rail routes in the historic Skidmore/Old Town district of Portland, first incorporated in 1851. The new construction in place of a surface parking lot is set to help revitalize the historic neighborhood.

All the water used onsite is gathered on the roof. From there, it flows down into the 71,000-gallon cistern, which helps store enough rainwater to last through the dry summers. Before being used, it is treated with microfiltration, ultraviolet light, and chlorine to potable standards. Up to 1,000 gallons of treated water is stored for immediate potable use.

Water from lavatories, showers, and dishwashers is diverted to the greywater system. The greywater is used for toilet and urinal flushing and irrigation of the building’s urban agriculture planters.

The five-story composting waste system is made up of 18 toilets feeding 20 compost bins. Turning human waste into compost allows the nutrient cycle to mimic a natural ecosystem, where there is no such thing as waste. The compost will be returned to the soil, closing the loop in the cycle from earth to plants to food and back. The toilets are vacuum flushed, using just 1/10th of a gallon of water each. The material from the toilets is distributed evenly to the 20 bins by the vacuum system. The building includes an emergency connection to the city sewer as a backup.

All the water used onsite is gathered on the roof. From there, it flows down drains and into the 71,000- gallon cistern, which helps store enough rainwater to last through the dry summers. Before being used, it is treated with microfiltration, ultraviolet light, and chlorine to potable standards. Treatment will happen in a batch process by the building’s Water Systems Operator. Up to 1,000 gallons of treated water is stored for immediate use. The building is connected to the city water supply for fire protection.

Photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof producing 133kW, along with a dedicated offsite roof producing 215kW allows the project to produce 105% of its own electricity. The accordion-shaped panels on this roof are oriented in a unique way, facing both east and west, which allows them to harvest sunlight all day long. This maximizes rooftop production and results in a more gradual curve instead of a large energy spike midday if they were in the usual south-facing orientation.

The approach to technology is to use the most efficient solutions available that meet high resiliency and performance requirements, and to turn equipment off when not in use. This applies to three primary IT areas: network infrastructure, and end-user systems, and core services (servers, storage, email, etcetera).

The core IT infrastructure (network and local servers) operates on the energy equivalent of just one and a half hair dryers. This was accomplished while also improving both resiliency and performance.

For our network design, a "wireless first" strategy minimizes network switch and cabling infrastructure. Staff connect to Wireless Access Points, configured for performance, resiliency, and low radio power requirements. AI is used to automatically analyze and adjust performance, designed so that one half of the network can fail and the other half will automatically compensate to maintain high-performance service.

In 2022, we will also track and reduce network energy consumption including automatically shutting off network resources and Wireless Access Points during nights, weekends, and holidays when offices are unoccupied with an automated shutdown/turnup process.

Several approaches address end-user systems energy, including encrypted laptops (instead of desktops) taken home daily by staff for energy savings, business resiliency, and security purposes. Traditional dual-monitor configurations in our offices have been replaced with single ultra-wide displays that use less energy. Virtual desktops, which are more efficient than traditional laptops, further reduce the overall energy footprint.

We've eliminated most printing and removed all paper plotter equipment, in line with modern digital design practices. Markups on traditional paper drawings are replaced with intelligent digital markup, including the use of multi-touch displays, tablets, and styluses.

Moreover, traditional tablet-based conference room schedulers are replaced with E-ink schedulers. While a traditional scheduler requires constant power, an E-ink scheduler can operate on a single charge for several months, up to a year.

Each floor consists of a three-inch concrete topping slab with radiant piping running throughout. The pipes carry hot or cold water to heat or cool the space in a comfortable and energy efficient way. By distributing water instead of refrigerant throughout most of the spaces, the building’s potential greenhouse gas impact from refrigerant leaks is mitigated.

Onsite batteries help the building manage its power production to work with the downtown area-network. Common in urban districts, area-networks do not allow net metering like is common in residential solar. We negotiated a limited feedback allowance with PGE of ~50kW – only about 40% of the total capacity on the roof. During times when the building is generating an excess of power, the building will backfeed up to 50kW and the batteries will soak up the balance of the energy. When the solar is not generating enough, the balance of energy will come from the batteries and the grid. Our project uses a microgrid control system to manage the power flows between the PV batteries, loads, and the grid. The building sets a new precedent for solar in downtown areas where solar development has typically been restricted by the utility infrastructure.

An added benefit of the solar, storage, and microgrid is enhanced resilience for building operations. We estimate that during the sunny months of the year, the building could operate up to about 100 days without grid power by relying on solar, storage, and passive features such as daylighting, natural ventilation, and passive heating and cooling.

By increasing the amount of sunlight a space gets, we can decrease energy usage from electric lights as well as boost occupant happiness and productivity. 67% of east- and west-facing spaces are in the building are daylit, and desks are strategically located near windows.

A mashup of the qualities of both a deck and a balcony created the Deckony on the 5th floor. An inside space that can act like an outside space, the 1,500 square foot break room has large windows that manually fold completely open allow for fresh air and city views. Planter boxes provide urban agriculture and an extra boost of biophilia. The Deckony uses aspects of all 14 patterns of biophilia, from a visual connection with nature, airflow from open windows, the views of Mt Hood and the Willamette River, and more.

The building has zero recirculated air, instead relying on manually operable and automatic windows along with 100% outside air heat recovery ventilators. The upper windows open automatically when the correct conditions are met, while the lower windows can be manually operated for fresh air on demand.

Architecturally speaking, the windows took inspiration from the historical neighborhood. Many of the surrounding buildings were designed before electricity, and thus the windows needed to be tall to let in as much natural light as possible.

To make the staircases more inviting and interactive, LED lights change color with the number of footsteps each day, filling the space with saturated color as more travelers climb up and down. Occupant health increases as they interact and “play,” while elevator energy use decreases.

With 23 bus routes within a 1⁄2 mile, 40 stalls of bike storage, onsite showers, no car parking, and a central location, the building hits an impressive 99 out of 100 Walk Score, decreasing fuel use and boosting health and happiness for occupants. One block away, Waterfront Park provides an urban greenspace for walking meetings and soccer breaks.

Sustainable and healthy building materials include Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which makes a strong and durable structure. Constructed with sustainably harvested wood, the building holds about 25% less embodied carbon than a comparable concrete or steel building, while adding a beautiful natural finish that speaks to the biophilic design.

The building’s structure is designed to Category IV standard, similar to essential buildings like hospitals and fire station. The building is expected to sustain minimal damage in even an event as significant as a Cascadia Subduction zone earthquake. Because the stiffer building will sway less in an event, the space required between neighboring buildings went from 8 inches down to 4 inches. This increased the leasable space by about 200sf and added about $150,000 to the project’s value. The seismic upgrade added $135,000 to the cost. Net, the seismic improvement pays for itself.

Five red maple trees had to be removed on 1st Avenue for the construction of the building. Rather than send them to the woodchipper to become waste, we worked with a local miller to cut and dry the wood, then craft them into our beautiful new reception desk. Outside, new trees were planted to grow in their place.

In order to be certified, a Living Building must meet the ILFI Red List Standard, which restricts things like asbestos, lead, mercury, BPA, cadmium, PVC, VOCs, and many other common additives from being used in the building. Every material used was vetted and approved, meaning a substantially healthier environment and dramatically reduced pollution from materials with harmful environmental footprints. The vetting process involved thousands of hours invested researching ingredients-lists of the nearly 3,000 products used.

Due to historical district restrictions and limited roof space, the building couldn't produce 100% of its needed energy on this block. Using a clever solution, about half of the PV panels were donated to a local affordable housing development. The PAE Living Building retains the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), while the affordable-housing development get the financial benefit of free on-site energy. The PAE Living Building purchases renewable energy for the utility energy needed at 1st and Pine, ensuring that sufficient RECs exist for both projects to claim renewable power.

By being pushed to look for a creative solution for power production, the PAE Living Building provides a social benefit that strengthens our local community in addition to the ecosystem benefit of renewable power production. The benefit becomes greater than net-zero in the typical on-site model.

The historic Skidmore/Old Town district was built in the late 1800s with concepts that relied heavily on the Golden Ratio, or Fibonacci series. Interestingly, this is also demonstrated repeatedly in nature. By designing with this in mind, the architects were able to bridge historic and natural worlds in the new built environment.